We did some cool stuff, and this year I'll definitely keep you all posted on what we're up to.

Honestly, I'd like to draw more kids than I had last year (about 6 or so), so I'm looking for any recruiting ideas you all might have. Suggestions and ideas of what you think 10-15 year-olds might be interested in are greatly appreciated.

Runaways is filled with teenage angst. Probably for the older kids though.

I like Marvel's "The Marvelous Land of Oz". I just looked at the cover and it says "all ages" too. I really like the art style of it, it's cute. I saw a variant cover of the first issue that had the little boy and his pumpkin head friend and I thought it was cute so I bought it on a whim. I've only read issue one, but I'm assuming they've twisted Wizard of Oz a bit.

Ska wrote:Runaways is filled with teenage angst. Probably for the older kids though.

I like Marvel's "The Marvelous Land of Oz". I just looked at the cover and it says "all ages" too. I really like the art style of it, it's cute. I saw a variant cover of the first issue that had the little boy and his pumpkin head friend and I thought it was cute so I bought it on a whim. I've only read issue one, but I'm assuming they've twisted Wizard of Oz a bit.

With Runaways, it's no secret that I keep like, a skrillion copies of the digests in my room.OZ, on the other hand, is something I need to get on; Skottie Young's art seems perfect for the title. I think they were pretty close to the Baum version of Oz, as opposed to the cinematic version.

Silent K wrote:What about the Marvel event stuff, like Civil War, House of M, Secret Invasion? Or Marvels? Age of Apocalypse?

Marvels: Yes. Civil War: I use it in my Pop Culture class to teach about Political Philosophy, which might be a bit advanced for most of these kids.Crossovers, however, make it a little tough, because many of them require some form of prior knowledge. Next summer, I look forward to using S.I. for it's religious implications.

I got many of the suggested titles last year on WUMB. I'm thinking more along the lines of any ideas you guys might have for projects or anything. What haven't I done yet that might stoke some of these kids out?

Joshua wrote:I think tying the comics into the movies would be a way to grab most kids, though I'm having trouble thinking of a concept or a project that does.

Josh, you just inspired me to make a recruitment poster about the movies.Something like "If you enjoyed these movies, you'll enjoy the comic book club" kind of a thing.I'm sure I can find some way to utilize it properly.

True, but with a club, it's tough because it's not supposed to be lessons as much as fun projects and productivity. Plus my time with them is limited (I'm scheduled for an hour/week, but I voluntarily stay for much longer. Most can't stay due to the late-bus leaving at 3:30).I wish I had more time with them. Sad face.

It's probably outside of your range of stuff you can do with them, but when I was in high school I had a teacher that had the Communications II class (school TV thing) do coverage at WWC like 3 years ago.

I know when I was in middle school, Cirque Du Freak was an insanely popular series at my school. It was just made into a movie (though not a great one), and there is a manga adaptation of it. That might be a good one for the kids.

There's a ton of vampire love stories in manga. That might be something you could use to lure some teeny-bopper Twilight fans to the club.

Coraline would be a good one to do. I think you guys should definitely do something like "see where your favorite movies started" kind of thing. There's stuff out there, but it's just so hard to find something to bridge the gap to get students, especially girls interested. There definitely seems to be more manga that's chick oriented.

Have you thought about maybe having the kids create a comic of their own? Go over the makings of heroes and villains, and let them do something of their own.

I can vouch for these two. Both are pretty universal. And you nor the kids have to spend cash on Bayou. It's a free e-comic on Zuda, and deeper than the synopsis lets on. Nice way to create literacy and tap the vein of African American struggles of the past. Easy homework or study for an easy-quiz, as one of my history teachers would put it.

Nope. The entire thing is an actual Oz book. It was the second Oz book by L. Frank Baum. It's completely legitimate.

Spoiler:

If they follow the famous fourteen, we should eventually see all of these titles:

Wonderful Wizard of OzMarvelous Land of OzOzma of OzDorothy and the Wizard in OzThe Road to OzThe Emerald City of OzThe Patchwork Girl of OzTik-Tok of OzThe Scarecrow of OzRinkitink in OzThe Lost Princess of OzThe Tin Woodman of OzThe Magic of OzGlinda of Oz

Matt wrote:BoneFar ArdenEssex County TrilogyBlanketsBooks of MagicToo Cool to be forgotten

Books of Magic might be for high school reading. High concept with some taboo subjects. The first mini, maybe, but not the series.Bone could work, but it is middle school. You may lose some of your audience.B&W isn't bad, but again, you may lose audience with the others.

Ska wrote:Have you thought about maybe having the kids create a comic of their own? Go over the makings of heroes and villains, and let them do something of their own.

This is actually the major point of the club. We've already made a book, but haven't had the venue to sell it yet. Plus, I didn't get a ton of submissions (I only had 6 kids in the club last year), so I had to fill it with stuff I did and pages from my sketchbook. I'm hoping to up the ante a bit this year.

I do a lot of the "deeper meaning" stuff in a Pop Culture class I do. This is more "something to get kids interested in joining a club" kind of stuff. Also, Ska, love the idea of the movies thing. I won't get the time to really teach them about it, BUT I'm definitely going to use it as a basis for some signs or something.